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When the Bread Baking Babes baked French Bread in honor of Julia Child this month, we invited the Buddies to bake along with us. I pronounce our collective efforts a resounding success! Katie has the roundup of the Babes’ breads, and I have the honor of presenting the Buddies’ bakes. Thanks to everyone for joining in the celebration of this legendary woman!
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| Loaves and Rolls, Second Batch |
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| Flat Breads, Sweet Breads, and More |
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Julia Child would have been 100 years old today. “Hooray!” I am delighted to join the Bread Baking Babes and Buddies in celebrating the life and accomplishment of this remarkable woman — a true Babe — with Julia’s Pain Français (French bread).
Oh, Julia, thank you, thank you, thank you for this! Thank you for your dedication and your passion, your curiosity and your ingenuity, without which you would not have brought French bread into the purview of the home baker for the first time.
Published in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two in 1970, Pain Français was a landmark achievement. In her engaging memoir My Life in France, Julia wrote that it was “one of the most difficult, elaborate, frustrating, and satisfying challenges I have ever undertaken.” After she and her husband Paul baked loaf upon trial loaf with less-than-successful results (“they tasted all right, but they weren’t anything like real French bread”), Julia ultimately sought the guidance of renowned French boulangerie expert, Professor Raymond Calvel. He taught her about proper dough consistency (“soft and sticky”), about giving it a long cool fermentation to allow complex flavors to develop, and about good shaping and slashing technique. ”By the end of the day, our loaves were turning out just right, and I was feeling euphoric. It was as though the sun in all his glory had suddenly broken through the shades of gloom!”
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| Loaves and Rolls, Second Batch |
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| Flat Breads, Sweet Breads, and More |
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